For Amazon merchants, probably the biggest fear is their account being suspended, which a recent Bloomberg report said is more reality than most might believe.
Andy Ayers, an Amazon merchant who estimates he does about $500,000 in sales a year on the site, told Bloomberg that his account was suspended for about two weeks recently because a customer complained that one of his items was not the authentic deal (Ayers said he provided receipts to back up the product’s authenticity).
“I wasn’t doing anything shady,” Ayers told Bloomberg. “It seems there are a lot of Amazon sellers who aren’t doing anything wrong and are getting punished. There’s an arbitrary nature to it.”
But what most Amazon customers do not realize is that almost half of all products sold on the eCommerce giant’s site are from third-party merchants. But as Amazon prides itself on customer service, whenever a customer complains about a merchant’s products (however legit that complaint may be), it’s usually the customer that gets listened to. As is the case in Ayers’ situation.
“We treat sellers like customers,” said Amazon spokesman Erik Fairleigh. “The perfect seller experience is seamless self-service that allows the seller to independently run their business. If a seller needs to contact us, we have Seller Support associates available 24 hours a day worldwide, including support for urgent issues with a response in an hour or less. Sellers have available to them at any time many comprehensive tools and services to reach and interact with our Seller Support team.”
It remains to be seen, as Amazon pushes for ever-greater expansion, how its stringent third-party merchant policy will affect sales.
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